Ben's £15m flutter on a new home

Last updated at 22:15 13 March 2007

Socialite Ben Goldsmith’s beautiful banking heiress wife Kate Rothschild will be relieved he has finally found a country house well away from the casinos, poker tables and other temptations he haunts in London.

I can reveal that the 26-year-old son of the late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith has just spent £15 million on an imposing red-brick mansion in a secluded rural idyll in Hampshire, but only 50 miles from London.

The spectacular nine-bedroom, six-bathroom property stands in 326 acres and has a further 56 acres of shooting rights as well as its own swimming pool, tennis court and stable block, plus a separate farmhouse and two cottages.

The extensive grounds include an orchard and paddocks, a kitchen garden and a family shoot. It was on the market for just three weeks with Savills at a guide price in excess of £10 million before venture capitalist Ben snapped it up.

The couple, who have a daughter Iris, three, and a son Frankie, one, already have a £5 million townhouse in Chelsea and have been looking for a country property for some time.

Says a friend: ‘Originally they wanted somewhere in Gloucestershire, but saw this house and absolutely fell in love with it. Kate was quite determined that they find somewhere outside London where they can spend time as a family.’

When the Goldsmiths move in they will not be lacking in well-to-do neighbours. Former crimper John Frieda, the ex-husband of singer Lulu who has a £180 million fortune thanks to his hair products, has recently bought in the same village, which has a population of 600.

On Sunday, Frieda and his partner Avery Agnelli — widow of Fiat heir Giovanni Agnelli — and mother of his two children were among the congregation for worship at the village church. The widow of chocolate heir Peter Cadbury, Janie, is also a local.

When I contacted Ben about his new abode, he said: “Yes, I am here at the house right now.”

Berlusconi, his daughter and the blackmail claim

As the corruption trial of Silvio Berlusconi and Tessa Jowell’s lawyer husband David Mills gets under way in Milan, there is a fascinating side-show concerning the former Italian premier’s attractive 22-year-old daughter, Barbara.

For in a refreshing twist on Berlusconi’s autocratic lifestyle — he is accused of giving Mills a £350,000 bribe — it is claimed the billionaire has fallen victim to a corruption scam.

His nemesis is a paparazzo who has been arrested for allegedly blackmailing Berlusconi after the buxom Barbara was snapped leaving a Milan nightclub giggling and kissing a man. Displaying typical Italian charm, the paramour was also photographed fondling Barbara’s curvaceous derriere.

To prevent the snaps being sold to a newspaper, it is alleged Berlusconi paid nearly £14,000 for them last year. Now Ricardo Corona faces charges of extortion, supplying drugs and living off immoral earnings. A second man has also been arrested.

Philosophy graduate Miss Berlusconi, who is on the board of her father’s Mediaset empire, is currently studying in America, but revealed details of the alleged scam in leaked interviews with prosecutors.

“One day my father said he had received some papers asking him to pay something for me and he asked me for an explanation. I said: ‘Could you do a favour for me please.’ He said: ‘OK.’ He understood I was a little embarrassed and he didn’t ask me anything else.”

A year on from tying the knot, married life is clearly agreeing with luvvie Sir Derek Jacobi and his long-time love Richard Clifford.

For the first picture of them in public since they wed in a civil partnership ceremony shows a couple happily carrying out the domestic duty of exercising their dog.

Sir Derek and Richard, who have been together for 28 years, were snapped with their Irish terrier Bella in Primrose Hill near their North London home.

Although Sir Derek, 68, made his name as a lecherous Roman emperor in the Seventies TV drama I, Claudius, he is circumspect about his domestic life and revealed his relationship with Richard only three years ago.

The actor, who recently starred in the acclaimed play A Voyage Round My Father, never wanted much fuss. “We just went to the register office and it was all over,” he told me at the time.

William’s a winner

All in all, Prince William enjoyed his Cheltenham debut yesterday, at the steeplechasing festival where his late great-grandmother, the Queen Mother, was such an enduring fixture.

When I ran into him after the Champion Hurdle, his race card showed only one winner — My Way de Solzen in the second race, a tip provided by City PR figure Piers Pottinger. “Other than that I haven’t had a good day,” he told me.

But things all came right in the last race when he put £10 on the joint favourite, the David Pipe-trained Gaspara, giving him two wins in the day.

William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton, along with the Prince’s cousin and Cheltenham regular Zara Phillips, were guests of Blackpool tycoon Trevor Hemmings, who won the Grand National with Hedgehunter two years ago.

With exquisite irony, just as Channel 4 broadcasts Prince Charles’s defence against accusations of extravagance in its Dispatches documentary, The Meddling Prince, the heir to the throne was hosting another lavish evening at Windsor Castle.

The Prince’s ineffable major-domo Michael Fawcett personally supervised arrangements for the dinner in the Waterloo Chamber, even helping to lay the tables.

Velvet tablecloths were adorned with towers of tea-lights, daffodils and narcissi for a spring theme.

In an adjoining room, a pianist and a three-piece band entertained the guests — supporters of the Prince’s Trust.

When it comes to dazzling his wealthy friends, the Prince shows no sign of reducing his hospitality.

Between them they have loved and lost more than their share of women.

But when lothario Sir Dai Llewellyn and lap dancing expert Peter Stringfellow celebrate their admiration of the fairer sex in a debate at the Cambridge Union, they will do so as opponents.

The playboy baronet will propose the motion that gentlemen prefer blondes. Sir Dai certainly has plenty of experience.

Divorced from his first (and blonde) wife Vanessa, he enjoyed a string of romances until, at the age of 60, he became engaged to Swedish interior designer Christel Jurgenson — only for her to dump him last year.

Twice-married Stringfellow, 66, is happily ensconced with fiancee Bella Wright, 24, a brunette and former Royal Ballet dancer who worked at her lover’s eponymous table-dancing club in Paris.

Who says our great seats of learning are dumbing down!

An item last Friday said Lord Stevenson’s shareholding in Cloaca Maxima Ltd and a payment to Cloaca Maxima from a company of which one of his children is a director, was missing from the House of Lords Appointments register of interests.

Cloaca Maxima is, in fact, listed and the payment fully described in its annual report.